Once upon a time, former Chief of General Staff, Gen Oladipo Diya (rtd); former foreign affairs minister, Odein Ajumogobia and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep, were a force to reckon with not just because of their positions but because their voices made headlines. ELEOJO IDACHABA writes on where these former public office holders could be at the moment.
Oladipo Diya
Gen Oladipo Diya is a retired Lt. Gen. in the army. His last public appointment was before 1995 when he was the Chief of General Staff before he was implicated in what many called a phantom coup plot against the late Gen Sani Abacha. This ex-military officer was educated at the Methodist Primary School, Lagos; Odogbolu Grammar School and Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. He later attended the US Army School of Infantry, Command and Staff College, Jaji and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru near Jos. While serving in the military, Diya took time out to study Law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and obtained an LLB degree and then proceeded to the Nigerian Law School where he was called to bar as Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Later in his career life, Diya became commander, 31 Airborne Brigade and military governor of Ogun state from January 1984 to August 1985. He became General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division in 1985; commandant, National War College (1991–1993) and later appointed as Chief of Defence Staff. Following the coup that removed Ernest Shonekan in 1994, he was appointed Chief of General Staff and vice chairman of the defunct Provisional Ruling Council in 1994under the late Gen Sani Abacha as Head of State. While he was in that capacity, it was wildly rumoured that Diya and Abacha were having cold war but it was denied until the inevitable happened.
In 1997, Diya and a group of soldiers were allegedly framed up in a plan to overthrow the regime but was uncovered by forces loyal to Abacha. In the process, Diya and others involved bagged various jail terms. He, in particular, was tried in a military tribunal and given a death penalty.
In sentencing the officers, Gen Victor Malu, chairman of the military tribunal that tried him in Jos said there was overwhelming evidence to prove Diya had amassed a small army of loyal troops by the time his plot to overthrow the regime was discovered. The findings of the tribunal were that he presided over and actively participated in several meetings in which the coup was discussed. The coup would have been carried out on December 20, the day that most of the accused persons were picked up,” he said.
However, a day before he was to be executed 1998, Abacha died, thereafter, he was pardoned byAbdusalami Abubakarwho committed the death sentence to life imprisonment. He was, however, released from detention in 2012 by former President Goodluck Jonathan and since then, he went into a private life. Analysts say that since he came out of detention, he has been doing everything possible to reclaim some of the choice property he lost. Apart from that, he has since withdrawn from public life and rather devoted most part of his time to the activities of the Methodist Church Nigeria, where he fellowships.
Odein Ajumogobia
Odein Ajumogobia is a politician and businessman. He was former minister of state for petroleum resources between 2007 and 2009 as well as minister of foreign affairs from 2010 to 2011. In his capacity as petroleum minister, he was head of Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC from July 2007 to December 2008.
As petroleum minister, he pushed for deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry. According to him, that would eliminate shortages of petroleum products while saving taxpayers over N687 billion in annual subsidies.
In the days of the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, Ajumogobia, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was alleged to be the negotiator between the government and militants, but he denied ever accepting to represent any organisation in possible negotiations with the federal government.
In a statement, he said, “My attention has been drawn to widespread reports in the media claiming that I have agreed to participate in negotiations with the federal government over the issue of attacks against oil installations in the Niger Delta on behalf of some of the alleged perpetrators of these actions or connected persons. This is not so.
“I wish to make it absolutely clear that I do not know the alleged perpetrators, nor have I offered to serve as their representative in prospective discussions with the federal government in any capacity, whatsoever.
“I was recently contacted by someone who claimed to represent the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. In that conversation, the caller asked if I would be willing to participate in an initiative to find ways to end the attacks on oil installations through dialogue towards restoring peace and stability in the region.
“My brief response was that if the federal government was genuinely interested in entering into discussions with credible parties who could help to facilitate such a dialogue to halt the actions that were undermining the social and economic stability of the region and the nation I would readily participate. In such an event, I would seek to articulate the proper interests of all law- abiding Nigerians generally and the ordinary people of the Niger Delta states, in particular.”
“I am not affiliated to or the official or legal representative of any particular group and I am certainly not an advocate of the unstated demands or actions of any insurgent organisation.”
According to an online medium, Ajumogobia is an outstanding public servant who handles his official duties in an intelligent, cultured and disciplined manner to the extent that while he was foreign affairs minister, many Nigerians and foreigners praised and regarded him as the best foreign minister the country ever had but former President Goodluck Jonathan did not deem it fit to retain him in his cabinet when he reshuffled the cabinet in 2011. Since then, not much has been heard about this ex-minister of the Kalabari extraction from River state.
Jonah Wuyep
Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep (rtd) was a one-time Chief of the Air Staff; therefore as an air force pilot, he primarily flew the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
He joined the military in 1970 and was commissioned into the air force in 1973, thereafter; he had several military trainings in Nigeria and US. As a trained pilot, Wuyep flew both jet and transport aircrafts although most of his flying career was spent on the C-130 Hercules. This included airlift operations in Eastern and Southern Africa in support of the independence movements. By 1994, Wuyep had been promoted to Group Captain and was appointed the commander of 301 Flying Training School in Kaduna. In April 2001, Wuyep was made the Chief of Air Staff and promoted as Air Marshal. Following the Air Force’s receipt of a 3 million US dollars aid package in the form of American C-130 spare parts, Wuyep called for a closer relationship between the Nigeria Air Force and the United States Air Force. He acknowledged that the development of the oil and gas in the Gulf of Guinea could be mutually beneficial to both countries. He was, however, unexpectedly dismissed as Chief of the Air Staff by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006 and replaced with Air Marshal Paul Dike.
Since he was removed, not much has been heard about him again except in 2014 when he was reported to have said in a newspaper interview that he has decided to leave politics for a while.
